Stay on target

Back in the days of geek prehistory, a T-shirt was a signal to the world around you that you cared about your nerdy pursuits enough to fly them like a flag. Companies like Graphitti Designs contracted with movie studios and comics publishers to create shirts with our favorite characters and sold them up on the walls of comic book stores and through mail-order.

The computer revolution has enabled the T-shirt world to become something totally new – affordable production and distribution means that shirts can be printed in small quantities and sold anywhere in the world. Starting with Threadless, dozens of companies popped up letting artists and designers show their stuff. It’s a better time than ever to be a geek fashionista, and if you’re looking to expand your wardrobe we’re going to help you out every week… on T-Shirt Tuesday.

Thunderbutts

We love a good mash-up, especially when it reminds us of a cherished cartoon of the 80s. If the Belcher kids were alive back then, you can bet your bottom dollar that Tina would get weird emotions about Thundercats with all of its quasi-furry leanings. Artist CoDDesigns pierces the veil and uses their sight beyond sight to envision the Belcher family as the mummy-bashing cats from Thundara.

Butts

Tina Belcher’s somewhat complex sexuality blazed new trails in what was appropriate for animated kids to say, and we love every minute of it. She’s one of a kind, that girl, and artist Punksthetic celebrates her #1 interest with this design that parodies Michael Jackson’s classic 1987 album Bad. A reserved two-color illustration style helps this one really pop like the King.

Lord Of The Fries

Yellow and red are colors that people naturally associate with fast food, thanks to McDonalds’ mastery of the domain (and probably also those essential condiments, mustard and ketchup). Artist DeepFriedArt uses those two hues to render a sharp and funny portrait of Bob Belcher in all of his burger-flipping glory.

Kuchi Kopi

The mysterious Kuchi Kopi shows up all through the Bob’s Burgers-verse in a variety of guises, from toothbrushes to sex fantasies. Bob describes it as “a spirit that can be different things to different people,” and that’s as good an explanation as any. Artist duckandbear was obviously as captivated by the little green thing as the Belcher family is, so they decided to put it on a shirt too.

Indoor Kid

Gene might be the most underrated Belcher, and artist tides_ agrees with us, as they’ve put together a shirt that just features the little fella in all of his glory. As the middle child of the family, Gene sometimes doesn’t get the attention that he thinks he deserves, so his epic musical performances and idiotic pranks help get that spotlight back on him. Just… put some clothes on, buddy. Nobody wants to see you in your tighty whiteys. Do people even wear those anymore?

One Eyed Snakes

One of the best things about Bob’s Burgers is the insane volume of puns the writers sneak into the series – there’s a whole lot of wordplay going on, both innocent and not. A great example of the latter category is the name of the biker gang that hangs out on Ocean Avenue. We’re not going to explain to you what “one eyed snake” is a euphemism for, but big ups to charlescheshire for slapping their logo on a T-shirt that you can wear to your grandma’s house.

Burger City

The fast food business can be a tough one, and sometimes a man needs to step over the line to keep his customers happy. Bob’s Burgers gets the Frank Miller treatment in this noir-styled shirt from artist Soulkr, who shows us a rainy, grim night on Ocean Avenue. Can you imagine if they made a whole episode in this style? It’d be wild.

Oh My God

Bob Belcher is a classic sitcom dad archetype, completely unable to hold it together in the face of his family’s spiral of chaos and madness. We really dig how this shirt design by MitchLudwig folds in both the classic cartoony style of the show and some bold graphic elements – that green color is incredibly eye-catching, and the unexpected photo-realistic window in the top corner is an edgy touch. Cool shirt in general.

Buttvana

Who’s to say where the true path to enlightenment lies? It may well be in pursuing good deeds for your fellow man and clearing your heart of desire like the great sages say, or it could just come from sitting really still and thinking about nice butts for a while. Artist Spazzynewton cuts through this theological dilemma nicely with this blessed image of Tina Belcher sitting in the lotus pose while pondering hindquarters as a Butt Buddha.

Jimmy Pesto’s

Sometimes the dumbest shirts are also the best. The episode “Glued, Where’s My Bob” was the 100th one produced, and instead of doing something special – or, God forbid, a clip show – the team just made the most quintessentially Bob’s Burgers show possible, featuring Bob getting glued to a toilet when a magazine reporter comes to write a profile on his restaurant. His rival Jimmy Pesto jumps on the situation with this ridiculous hand-scrawled T-shirt that wowokay has replicated in all its glory.

Guardians Of The Burger

Let’s close this one out with another pop culture mashup, this one using a more current franchise – Marvel’s unlikely hit Guardians of the Galaxy. Sure, casting a burger-slinging dysfunctional family as an artifact-stealing dysfunctional starship crew might seem like a stretch until you think about it. Making Tina be Groot is the best decision, though. Nice illustration by ArtbyRichard that really meshes the Marvel house style with Bob’s Burgers.